POP-CULTURE COLUMN: I Hate To Say It, But Spaceballs Isn’t Funny
By Dan Brown As you may have heard, there’s going to be a sequel to Spaceballs, the Mel Brooks Star Wars parody that debuted a long time ago in 1987. Brooks and the cast (a mix of old hands and newcomers) have been doing publicity to drum up interest in the upcoming film, dubbed The New One, which will land in theatres April 23 next year. Providing movie theatres still exist. I suppose, as a sci-fi fan, I should be eagerly anticipating The New One, which promises to bring more Star Wars jokes and new pop-culture references to the big screen. But can I let you in on a secret? I don’t find Spaceballs funny. It might be familiar. It might even be fun to watch. But it ain’t funny. You likely have fuzzy memories of the gags written into the Spaceballs script. For instance: *Pizza the Hutt, the alien glutton who finds himself delicious.. *Barf, a half-human, half-dog alien hybrid who is his own best friend. *Dark Helmet . . . a villain played by Rick Moranis who has a giant helmet. *Daphne Zuniga’s Vespa is a Druish princess. *The Yoda figure is called Yogurt. *The Schwartz is a mystical power derived from merchandising dollars. And so on. Jokes like these are fine. Some of them even bring a half-smile to my face. But not a one of them is hilarious. Spaceballs has certainly achieved a kind of cultural staying power. Somewhere on this planet, on some channel or network, Spaceballs is playing right now. And by dint of ubiquity, it is one of those so-so motion pictures that we convince ourselves is remarkable. Like the Austin Powers films, it achieves influence just by enduring. But it’s not a comedy that achieves greatness. It’s not even the greatest Mel Brooks comedy. It doesn’t break new comedic ground like, say, Blazing Saddles. There’s nothing in Spaceballs to compare to the Blazing Saddles campfire scene where cowboy after cowboy farts until the joke is beaten into the ground, then they let more farts rip and it becomes funny all over again. Talk about audacious for the times! The Star Wars spoof also lacks a weirdly intense lead character, like Gene Wildern, who turned in such a great performance in Young Frankenstein. Besides, if Brooks had been itching to take on Star Wars, he wouldn’t have waited until four years after Return of the Jedi appeared in theatres. By then, the George Lucas trilogy was already retreating from the public consciousness. (Spoiler for younger readers: Star Wars came back!) It’s certainly not the greatest Star Wars parody, either. In fact, you could argue that the definitive comic spin on Star Wars still has yet to be made. There’s been a long history of attempts. The 1978 short film Hardware Wars was the first try, followed when the internet was in its infancy by the 1997 online short Troops. The slam against Lucas is that he takes his space opera too seriously. Look at the fact he never mocked his own creation the way the Star Trek brain trust does with its animated series Lower Decks. At least Trek’s producers realized the comedy potential of poking fun at themselves. (Granted, Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville beat Lower Decks to the punch by three years) Of course, some crusty Star Wars fans would likely say the Book of Boba Fett itself was an inadvertent self-parody! There’s no shortage of Star Wars material to work with, so how about it, Hollywood? Just mocking The Phantom Menace on its own could inspire so many laughs! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
Free Comic Book Day 2026 Preview
By Dan Brown It lives! Free Comic Book Day will return May 2 at L.A. Mood Comics & Games. I got my hands on some of the freebie sampler comics that will be handed out, so here are a few preliminary thoughts for those preparing to attend the event otherwise known as Geek Christmas. And remember, these mini-comics will be around only while supplies last, so be sure to get to 100 Kellogg Lane early on the first Saturday in May for the best selection! I think the big headline this spring is that many of the FBCD comics have a special focus on comics literacy. What I mean is, they are aimed at young readers and include helpful information about comics lingo, how comics are structured, and so on. The whole point of FCBD is to create new fans while giving existing fans reasons to be pumped about new stories that are coming soon from your favourite publishers. So if you’re the parent of a budding comics fan, you’ll want to pick up these books in particular. I wish I had had this kind of resource when I was eight years old! The Stitch (of Lilo and Stitch fame) booklet, titled Best Food Forever, includes a two-page spread showing how an unfinished comics page goes from rough sketch to line art to a finished inked page. With gorgeous illustrations by Nao Kodaka, the Stitch sampler comes in manga form and also includes a back inside cover that answers the question, “How do you read manga-style?” for those who have never encountered the Japanese storytelling format before. The Marvel comic featuring Spidey and His Amazing Friends gives definitions for industry terms such as panel, word balloon, and caption. It also provides proof that the days of Peter Parker being the only Spider-Man are long gone! The chibi cast includes Spin, Ghost-Spider and Symbie, all different versions of the character that has been around since 1962. The FCBD Pizza and Taco floppy goes an additional step by having the two characters create a comic of their own. “Panels are the boxes that break up a comics page,” one footnote explains. The anthropomorphic food items instruct readers how to fold three pieces of paper to construct a homemade comic. Speaking of young readers, one of the highlights among all of this year’s freebies is the Whole Wide World of Mabel Mulligan. It’s about a fourth-grader who would rather be alone with her stuffy Badger than with so-called friends who call her “weird.” As her summer vacation beckons, Mabel is excited to learn her family plans to renovate their attic, so Mabel can at last have her own room, separate from her tyrant little sister. It’s an enchanting story. Every fandom under the sun is represented this FCBD. There’s one starring He-Man, as well as comics featuring the Avengers, Garfield, the creature from the Alien franchise, Predator, the Planet of the Apes gang, Archie and his friends, Jem and the Holograms, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Power Rangers, Street Fighter, and Megaman. In my eyes, the best of the lot is the one based on the 1980s superhero TV series The Greatest American Hero. Readers with long memories will remember this show about an ordinary guy who gets an alien supersuit but misplaces the instructions. It has gorgeous art from Alper Gelcel with strong writing by Don Handfield. The story picks up when the hero returns to Earth after decades spent off-world. The intuitive panel sense the creative team displays is the strongest I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a slick little book. I hope to see you at L.A. Mood in early May! Don’t forget the store is partnering with the London Children’s Museum, also housed in the historic Kellogg’s factory. The museum promises a “celebration of storytelling and creativity through hands-on activities, special guests, and a special gift from our friends at L.A. Mood Comics & Games!” Plus, as in previous years, there will be sales galore! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
POP-CULTURE COLUMN: In 2026, we’re all subscribers
By Dan Brown Once upon a time, subscriptions were a rare thing. But today it feels like every bloody product and/or service works according to a subscription model. And what I’m sensing is people are not thrilled with this shift. Back in the old days, by which I mean the 1970s/1980s, you could get subscriptions to a finite list of items. For example, as a young superhero fan I had a subscription to only one comic, Captain Canuck. I took this extraordinary (for me) step because it was the one title I never wanted to miss. Since I mostly bought comics off spinner racks (one in the stationery place in Sherwood Forest Mall, the other at the variety store in Westown Plaza Mall), the risk I took was that if I didn’t go often enough, I would miss the latest issue of my favourite comics. Hence I became a subscriber at a young age. Dedicated comic stores were still a few years off for me. They based their sales model on each customer’s individual pull list, which is just another kind of comic subscription. My brother and I had gift subscriptions to Omni, the sci-fi magazine, from a favourite aunt and uncle, as well as to Owl, the children’s equivalent of National Geographic. They arrived at our house every month through the mail. It seemed like some kind of dark magic was at work. At about the same time, when I was attending elementary school, my first job was delivering the London Free Press to the subscribers in Poplar Hill who read Southwestern Ontario’s daily newspaper. My parents also took the Freeps. And that was just about the extent of the subscriptions in my life. When cable television came along, it wasn’t a factor for me because our tiny hometown wouldn’t get any kind of service for decades. But if we fast-forward to the early 1990s, with my family then living in neighbouring Coldstream, there was a kind of subscription service that changed my world because it exposed me to such a wide variety of TV shows and content. I’m talking about the old gigantic grey-market satellite dishes. Once the dish was installed, every month our family would receive the new codes to descramble the signals beaming networks like the Comedy Channel, HBO, and Cinemax to our backyard. It was a Golden Age. I watched so many movies, it became my own version of film school. Was it entirely legal? Probably not. Did exposure to so many classic movies expand my imagination? You bet. When I moved to Toronto to attend journalism school, then later Saint John for work, I was abused by almost every cable company you can name. And by this point the idea of paying by monthly instalments had become firmly entrenched in all of our lives. Now leap ahead in time to 2026. Everyone who has a cellphone has to pay a monthly fee. Such music-streaming services as Spotify work the same way, as do Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube Premium. M’Lady and I pay for monthly services like our home digital assistant, our internet, even a farm share that provides us with in-season produce in the warmer months. You can also get car maintenance by subscription, as well as makeup, clothing, meal kits, craft beer, cloud storage, car washes, Peloton, daycare, museums, house cleaning, MasterClasses, and wine. I get the business imperative: The companies behind all of these products and services have established a revenue stream that never runs out. But if you’re feeble-minded like me, you might be having a hard time keeping track of all the things you subscribe to. Someone needs to come up with an app that helps consumers make sure they pay all of their subscriptions every thirty days. And of course you’ll pay for it – one month at a time. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group.
Monster of the Abyss artist Eric Olcsvary visits with GNG
By Dan Brown SPOILER WARNING: This column contains plot details. If you value surprise, stop reading now. You’ve been warned! The L.A. Mood Graphic-Novel Group met Saturday, April 11, and had a special guest, Tillsonburg artist Eric Olcsvary. This is a brief outline of our discussion with him during our hour-long meeting. The book: The first two issues of Monster of the Abyss, written by Scott Wojcik, and illustrated by Olcsvary. The discussion: Eric gave us a look into his creative process, his background, and his partnership with Wojcik, who is also a local creator. Olcsvary says Wojcik is an idea machine! Wojcik’s kids Ashton and Hayden helped the writer come up with the story for Monster of the Abyss. This comic series follows the adventures of Sleepy Joe, who is a “magical and unique” stuffy brought home from a store in the “Eatons Mall.” Over the two issues he undergoes a drastic transformation, and Olcsvary said Joe being able to think but not talk (his mouth is stitched shut) is a key part of the character’s personality. Oh, and although many readers have asked the creative team about this, Sleepy Joe is not a reference to former U.S. president Joe Biden! By issue No. 2, Sleepy Joe has become Creepy Joe after being pulled into the underworld and having his persona changed. L.A. Mood co-owner and GNG member Gord Mood said the entity that forcibly transforms Joe, the Gloom King, is a Nietzschean kind of being. “Even the strong-willed can be broken, their resolve crushed,” it tells the toy. “Friendship is a lie, when darkness rises they’ll leave you to rot. You’re better off embracing your true nature. You are a creature of fear, destined for darkness.” If you haven’t guessed by now, Monster of the Abyss is a horror story. Olcsvary explained to the group’s members that although he is a metalhead when it comes to music, he is not a big horror guy – he just keeps getting offers to draw horror books! The part of the book where Joe is in the black pit also prompted a digression among the group about brainwashing. To what extent can a person (or even a fabric toy) be induced to do things that are outside their normal moral sphere? We had wide-ranging opinions. Another point we spent a decent chunk of time talking about is the colouring of the book. The first printing of Monster of the Abyss No. 1 was in black and white, which was followed by a colour version with colours by Payton Atkinson. We agreed as a group that we enjoyed the coloured version more. Olcsvary has described his own lines as a “bouncy, ink-heavy art style full of movement and unique composition.” He told us on Saturday that inking is his favourite part of the comic-making process! You can find Monster of the Abyss on the rack reserved for work by local comic creators. L.A. Mood’s Graphic-Novel Group meets the second Saturday of every month. Next month’s selection is Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe by David Petersen and Gabriel Rodriguez. Be warned, I am a HUGE Mouse Guard fan! We’re set to meet May 9 at the gaming tables in the store at 11 a.m. All are welcome to join the discussion! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group.
POP-CULTURE COLUMN: Long live rock, killed by the CIA
By Dan Brown Who killed rock and roll? Turns out it was the CIA. This, according to a theory forwarded by Billy Corgan, lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins. “The industry purposely dialed down the ability of rock stars to have a voice,” he said on his podcast a month ago, as reported by Rolling Stone and other media outlets. He was talking about the end of his band's heyday in the 1990s: “Some people assert that the CIA was involved in all that, again, above my pay grade, but I saw it happen. I did witness it happen.” Corgan was speaking with his fellow 1990s rock star, Courtney Love. (Full disclosure: I haven’t seen or heard the whole podcast.) He described how it was MTV, the fondly remembered music channel, that played a key role in rock’s supposed demise. “If you were at MTV or around MTV [in] 1997, ’98, suddenly they decided rock was out, when rock was still very, very high up in the thing and it was replaced by rap, right? Their standards and practices immediately shifted.” Now, I love a crackpot conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but there are much simpler explanations than the Central Intelligence Agency teamed up with MTV – such as Corgan, Love and the rest were making bad music. The bald singer said rock gods were sidelined like it’s a bad thing, but perhaps the music-buying public just got sick of what his band was offering, as can happen with any product. Smashing Pumpkins albums are no different from commodities like hand soap, hubcaps, and sundried tomatoes: They sell for as long as the market demands them. Consumers are fickle yet rational. And perhaps the truth is Corgan and his bandmates could not keep up with the changing tastes of music fans. It’s few musicians who have a career that spans decades. People who want a stable life don’t become rockers. Now, I won’t lie to you. I have rocked out to the Smashing Pumpkins. Not all their songs are mediocre. I particularly remember one day in the spring of 1995 when I was walking across campus on my way to handing in my final assignment of the first year of journalism school at Ryerson University singing “Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known” out loud. I felt elated screaming those lyrics. That Corgan-written song captured my feelings at that moment. Flash-forward all the way to 2026 and the same singer comes off as . . . entitled. Who knows, he could be right. Maybe all the music-industry executives and radio and TV programmers did get together around a big oak table to decide that rap was the new rock. Or maybe, just maybe, later Smashing Pumpkins albums sucked canal water, and rap video drew more advertisers to MTV. By the way, should rappers feel abused that hip-hop, in turn, took over as the dominant form of pop music over rap? Is the secret music cabal responsible for that shift in taste, too, Billy? But back to the CIA’s influence on the Billboard Hot 100. Readers with long memories know this isn’t the first time the American intelligence agency has been accused of meddling in the development of pop music. I mean, wasn’t it convenient at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius at Woodstock, in 1969, that the heavens opened up and the crowd of peace-lovers got soaked with rain? So clearly the decades-old rumours are true: If the CIA and MTV did actually join forces to hurt Billy Corgan’s feelings, then it’s obvious CIA agents seeded the clouds above Max Yasgur’s farm with silver iodide to make it pour on the festival of love, peace and music. Someone in the Nixon Administration wanted all those hippies to go home. Possibly even Tricky Dick himself. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
GRAPHIC-NOVEL COLUMN: Absolute Batman is a Pinhead
By Dan Brown Absolute Batman is a new version of the Dark Knight who’s setting DC fandom and the sales charts on fire. Instead of coming from a rich family, this Bruce Wayne is a young man of modest means while his nemesis, the Joker, is Gotham’s resident billionaire in this continuity. You can also recognize this new superhero because, as drawn by Nick Dragotta, he has a massive body but a pinhead for a noggin. Scott Snyder handles writing duties. I’ve been reading a number of Batman collections lately, ranging from the awful (The Long Halloween) to the superior (The Court of Owls Saga). For this column I read The Zoo, which collects the first six issues of Absolute Batman. The title has been lauded for its visual storytelling, and is selling gangbusters – we’re talking manga numbers. “Absolute Batman is now consistently selling 300,000 issues a month, a monster number in the comic-book publishing field,” the Hollywood Reporter noted in an article on April 3 (I’m sure a part of that total is single copies with variant covers). What you’ll see in Absolute Batman: The Zoo is fresh takes on familiar names and institutions. Jim Gordon is Gotham City’s Mayor. His daughter is Barbara, a cop like the main-universe version, except she’s black. Instead of a Batmobile, Wayne steals a motorcycle. His father, a grade-school teacher, is killed in a school shooting, inspiring the young man to become a crime fighter. Alfred Pennyworth is an ex-special forces soldier-turned-mercenary, and possible partner for the Dark Knight. Selina Kyle is a childhood friend of Wayne’s. Not having the financial resources of the original Bruce Wayne, our hero must use whatever materials come to hand, like when he commandeers a gigantic dump truck in a chase scene. He also leans on a group of friends that includes the Absolute equivalents of Two-Face and the Riddler. No doubt some of the people buying this series are speculators, but there’s no denying this is a novel and energetic twist on the Batman we’ve all come to know in the past. I especially appreciated Absolute Batman No. 4 because it was drawn by frequent Jeff Lemire collaborator Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and delves into this particular Batman’s origin story. The strong demand for the series has led to multiple printings of the first few issues. Fans are genuinely excited to see where the creative team will take the title. I’ve always argued, when anyone says Batman is just a regular guy (unlike Superman), that his superpower is the Wayne family fortune, which allows him to be prepared for any threat to his hometown. So it’s interesting to see how this Batman’s anger is directed at the city’s One Per Centers, who he feels have an obligation to their community, but are instead pretending to literally be above it all, hiding from their responsibility in penthouse apartments. Are you reading Absolute Batman? What do you think? How do you suppose he got his shrunken head? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
